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Wave Echo Cave: Wizard's Quarters
The doors leading into this area are cracked, their iron hinges partially melted. Wrenching or smashing open the doors requires a successful DC 15 Strength check. Dust, ash, walls blackened by fire, and heaps of debris beneath the sagging ceiling show that this room was damaged by a destructive blast. The furnishings-tables, chairs, bookshelves, beds-are charred or splintered, but otherwise well preserved. A scorched iron chest stands near the foot of one of the beds. This room contains the restless spirit of the last wizard to die here: Mormesk the wraith. He is not immediately visible but rises up out of the floor when a living creature enters the room. Mormesk was a powerful mage until he met his end in the spell battle at the climax of the orc attack. Centuries of anger have poisoned his soul, transforming him into a hate-filled apparition. Mormesk leads the undead that haunt Wave Echo Cave. The wraith spends his time here because the treasure he had amassed in life is in the scorched chest. No longer corporeal, he cannot touch or possess the wealth he enjoyed in life. This building served as a guesthouse for visiting wizards working in the Forge of Spells (area 15), most of whom were humans from nearby cities. The furnishings are all human proportioned. ROLEPLAYING MORMESK Mormesk speaks in grave whispers. When the wraith first rises up from the floor, it says, "Your presence is offensive to me, your life forfeit. My treasures are mine alone, not yours to plunder!" If the characters make no attempt to reason with the wraith, it attacks. If the characters try to reason with the wraith, it listens to what they have to say, provided they have not harmed it in any way or seized any of its property. The wraith is irrevocably evil, so the only way the characters can stay its spectral hand is to offer it something a former wizard would consider valuable in exchange for their lives. Mormesk values magic items (particularly scrolls), spellbooks, and arcane knowledge. Whatever the gift, a character must succeed on a DC 10 Charisma (Persuasion) check to convince the wraith of its value. Regardless of what the characters offer it, the wraith won't relinquish the wooden pipe in the scorched chest. It will, however, part with the coins and gems if the characters agree to kill the spectator in the Forge of Spells. (The wraith doesn't explain what a spectator is. It merely points toward area 15.) Once it receives its gift, the wraith allows characters to peruse its books and keep the secret map in one of them (see the "Treasure" section). TREASURE The scorched chest is unlocked and contains 1,100 cp, 160 sp, 50 ep, three diamonds (100 gp each), and a wooden pipe adorned with platinum filigree (150 gp). A handful of magically preserved tomes remain on the shelves. Most are just histories, but one has a map sewn into its cover. The map's presence can be discerned with a successful DC 12 Intelligence (Investigation) check. The shows the location of a dungeon of your own creation. When the characters finish their explorations here, this old map can lead them to their next adventure.